SPORTSSCOPE : Powerful Waves, With 4 All-Stars, to Play Bruins in Baseball Opener

The Pepperdine baseball team will open the season against UCLA at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Jackie Robinson Stadium at the Veterans Administration in West Los Angeles.

The Waves were 48-12-3 last year and made their third straight appearance in the NCAA tournament. The Bruins were 40-25-1 and went to the NCAAs for the second consecutive year.

Pepperdine Coach Dave Gorrie has 17 lettermen, including four who were named to the All-West Coast Athletic Conference team: outfielder Rick Hirtensteiner, first baseman Scott Shockey and pitchers Doug Simons and Craig Stiveson.

Gorrie said he expects an excellent defense and sound pitching but is “a little concerned about offense. We lack the experience and power of last season, but I think this group is capable of scoring.”

The Bruins of Coach Gary Adams are led by first baseman Eric Karros and center fielder Charlie Fiacco, both named to the All-Pacific 10 Conference team last season.

Pepperdine will play an alumni team at 1 p.m. Saturday at Eddy D. Field Stadium on the Malibu campus.

The UCLA women’s basketball team, 11-6 overall and 4-1 in Pac-10 Conference action, will play conference games at Washington State (6-8, 1-4) tonight and Washington (13-2, 5-0) Saturday night.

Last week the Bruins defeated Arizona, 87-62, and Arizona State, 71-64, in Westwood. UCLA sophomore forward Sandra VanEmbricqs scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds against the Wildcats and had 18 points and 8 rebounds against Arizona State.

Three Washington State players are scoring in double figures. Forward Jonni Gray is averaging 14.2 points, forward Angie Weir 11.5 and center Juli Reynvaan 11.

Washington, which plays host to USC tonight, has won seven straight games, including a 77-60 victory over Stanford two weeks ago, the first defeat of the season for the Cardinal. The Huskies rely on balanced scoring, with all their starters at or near double figures, and lead the Pac-10 in defense, allowing 59.2 points a game.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team, 9-8 overall and 2-2 in the West Coast Athletic Conference, is in the Pacific Northwest this week. The Waves will face Portland (8-7, 3-1) tonight and Gonzaga (11-6, 4-0) Saturday night.

Last week the Waves split home games with the same teams, losing to Gonzaga, 60-59, and defeating Portland, 75-48.

Pepperdine forward Earnesta Grace leads the team with a 13.8-point average and in rebounding (5.8), field goal percentage (54.5%), blocked shots (40) and steals (56).

The Pepperdine men’s volleyball team will play host to Cal State Northridge in a Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. match at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The Waves, 1-1 overall as the week began, lost a 4-game, 2 1/2-hour match to UCLA in last week’s Kilgour Cup in Westwood. The scores were 15-5, 10-15, 18-16, 15-12. Pepperdine was led by freshman Geoff Hart with 23 kills and junior Randy Bergstedt with 21.

The UCLA men’s swim team, 4-0 in dual meets at the start of the week, will play host to a group of U. S. national team swimmers at noon Saturday at the UCLA men’s pool. Admission is free.

Four former college All-Americans will lead the visitors: Tom Jager of UCLA, Matt Biondi of Berkeley and Jeff Kostoff and Jon Moffett of Stanford.

Coach Ron Ballatore’s Bruins are paced by Craig Oppel, who won his first national title in the 200-meter freestyle last summer at the Long Course Nationals, and Giovanni Minervini, who swam the world’s second-fastest time of 1:02.23 at last summer’s European Championships.

The Pepperdine women’s swim team, 9-2 overall, will be at USC, ranked eighth nationally, for a dual meet at 2 p.m. Friday.

Last week the Waves won a road meet from Fresno State, 141-106, and a double-dual meet at home by defeating Cal State Los Angeles, 70-9, and Loyola Marymount, 74-7.

Double winners for Pepperdine against Fresno State were freshman Jeryll Reed in the 100-yard (1:07.17) and 200 (2:24.51) backstrokes and junior Jennifer Gutierrez in the 500-yard (5:26) and 1,000 freestyles (11:16.87).

The No. 9-ranked UCLA women’s swim team, 7-4 overall and 1-3 in the Pac-10 Conference, will entertain USC at noon Feb. 6 at the men’s pool. Last week the Bruins lost to Stanford, 157-111.

The No. 4 Pepperdine men’s tennis team will play host to No. 11 UC Irvine at 1:30 p.m. Friday, to San Diego State at 1:30 p.m. Monday and to No. 3 USC at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Last week Pepperdine’s Robbie Weiss added a third preseason college tournament championship to his string. In the final of the Adidas Tournament in Huntington Beach, Weiss defeated USC’s Scott Melville, the top-ranked singles player before the season, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Weiss also won singles titles in the Citrus Bowl and National Collegiate tournaments.

The No. 4 UCLA women’s tennis team (2-0), will be in the Brigham Young Tournament today through Saturday at Provo. In the Riviera Country Club Tournament last week, the Bruin doubles team of Colinne Bartel and Maria LaFranchi lost in the title match to Arizona’s Susan Rosso and Betsy Somerville, 6-2, 7-5.

The Pepperdine women’s tennis team, 1-0 as the week began, will play host to Fresno State at 1:30 p.m. today.

Last week at the Riviera tournament, Wave sophomore Ginger Helgeson advanced to the championship singles match. But she injured her knee in the semifinals and was forced to default in the final to Trisha Laux of USC.

The UCLA women’s golf team finished fourth with a 938 at the Oklahoma State Invitational, played in Guadalajara, Mexico. Florida finished first with 921.

Florida’s Karen Davies topped individuals with a 221. UCLA’s Valerie Pamard was fourth with 229 and teammate Lana Perhacs ninth with 233.

The Pepperdine men’s golf team took fourth place with a 940 at the Pacific Coast Collegiate Tournament in Santa Barbara. UC Santa Barbara was first with 913. Jim Johnson shot 231 for the Waves and finished ninth.

The UCLA women’s gymnastics team won its second straight match of the season and in the Pac-10 Conference, topping Washington, 190.05 to 187.4.

The Bruins were led by All-American Kim Hamilton, who won the all-around with a 38.55, bars (9.75) and floor exercise (9.75), and by All-American Jill Andrews, who won the vault with a UCLA-record mark of 9.9.

The No. 2-ranked UCLA men’s volleyball team will begin defense of its Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. championship at Stanford at 7:30 p.m. Friday and No. 7 UC Santa Barbara at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Pauley Pavilion.

Last week the Bruins (14-1) finished second to the University of Manitoba at the UC Santa Barbara Tournament, losing to the Canadians in five games.

They also won their ninth straight Kilgour Cup, defeating Pepperdine in four games. Against the Waves, Trevor Schirman led UCLA with 26 kills and teammate Don Dendinger added 20. Schirman and Dendinger were later injured in the Manitoba match.